Senators urge gov’t to act on EJKs

Senators urged the government on Sunday to take action on what the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines called a “reign of terror” hounding the government’s war on drugs.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it was good that sectors were speaking out on issues besetting the country rather than keeping silent until the situation worsened.

“So even if there are criticisms, these can be answered but the state should not take it badly if there are institutions like the Catholic Church or nongovernmental organizations that are speaking out against the things being done by the administration,” Lacson told dzBB radio.

Lacson also said he was willing to include in the ongoing Senate inquiry on the “tokhang-for-ransom” killing of Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo the Amnesty International report that the Philippine National Police paid its own officers and assassins to kill drug offenders if the London-based rights watchdog has evidence. He said there should be sworn statements of witnesses that Amnesty talked to.

He said his committee on public order and dangerous drugs would write Amnesty today to find out what it was holding in terms of its controversial findings.

“If Amnesty is holding a sworn statement of the (unidentified) SPO1 who admitted accepting money to kill (drug suspects) as a reward, by all means let us investigate,” he said.

Amnesty has come out with a 66-page report that concluded that a majority of the killings appear to be “systematic, planned and organized” by authorities and thus, could be deemed crimes against humanity.

Sen. Francis Escudero asked the government to “show righteous indignation against extrajudicial killings (EJKs) even if the victims are drug suspects.”

In a text message, Escudero also asked the government to investigate these killings “with equal fervor.”